‘Obnoxious’

In response to:

Professor Charles Rosen compares two versions of a Wordsworth play and thinks that the phrase “obnoxious to its hate” in the later version is “an absurd tautology” [NYR, December 17, 1987]. Absurd or no, it is not a tautology. “Obnoxious” here means “subject” or “exposed” to its hate. Though archaic or barely current, the meaning can be found in any dictionary, and Mr. Rosen should have known it.